Cycling the Bay Area & Stories from the Garden

Winter Patio Refresh – Phase II

Some of you may recall my post of last week; I had finally come to the realization that after 2-years in the garden, my flowering plants had given their all, it was time for a refresh. Nothing that a quick trip to my local neighborhood nursery couldn’t solve and I returned with a bevy of beautiful new flowering plants to bring spring into the garden a little early this year. Not wanting to rush them into planters for the instant gratification of color which I may or may not be happy with later, I instead got down to the process of figuring out what to plant with what and where to put the planters when done?

Yep, those look nice

I am glad that I went with the urge to try something new this time; actually thinking about how the plants would work together. Paying attention to which color combinations I thought complimented each other, are the plants shade tolerant or sun lovers, and finally taking the plants potential size when mature into account (something I missed last year) to hopefully ensure happy results for the long term.

Getting closer!!

I really loved the profuse flowering of the plants on my patio over the years, so I decided to stick with basically the same families of flowers as I had; Primrose, Snapdragon, Pansy, and Viola. This years color palette is much brighter and I hope will make a more striking display. That is the thing about plants, gardens, and flowers – – only time will tell, I can only guide. I definitely targeted colorful options to try to achieve the biggest bang that I could with few bucks that I have!

Getting the planters ready

Out with the Coleus – in with the color

I must say that I am pleased with the efforts thus far. I completely uprooted three of my 29″ x 8″ x 5″ planters, which formerly contained my June bearing strawberries (will be picking more up sometime this week), my ornamental strawberry (fragaria x. lipstick), and the last remaining vestiges of the prior snapdragon plants. The snapdragon and June bearing strawberry were totally spent – bereft of life, they would flower / fruit no more! The ornamental strawberry will be replanted once I get everything situated a little better – he currently sits in a pile of soil – definitely not dignified (sorry guys!).

Planter #1

Planter #2

Planter #3

Planter #4

As usual, one day just wasn’t enough to bring the vision to fruition and I still have a number of things left to do tomorrow. The rescued Jade plant needs to be transferred into their new Redwood planter box, Mr. Big Boy Avocado needs to be transplanted into the larger pot I bought for him, and then I need to clean, clean, clean! I will of course share more photos and information as I get more done; however, for today, I got as much done as I am going to do.

I leave you with a trio of close-in photos of a few of the patio’s new additions that are in glorious bloom.